Armatures: dragons an such

When creating an armature for a non-human figure like a dragon or an animal, look at the
way the limbs bend and how long they are in respect to the rest of the body.

This gives you an idea of how to create the wire frame for the armature.

It also helps to put your figure in another pose than the one you'll enventually use.
As you can see, my typical fantasy dragon is closely related to the dinosaur.
It has two hind legs, which are slightly bigger and more powerful than the forelegs.
The only thing I've added of course are the wings. They are connected to the back
at shoulder height.

If you bend the joints of the fore and hind legs back, and curve the spine a bit more
(to support the heavy wings) to one curve, you'll make your wire frame
dragon-like again. see the sketch below (For clarity, I've only drawn the right side legs).

After you've created the armature and put it into the pose you want it, you can start
fleshing out the armature by wrapping pieces or tinfoil round the armature, thicker on the places
where it should, like the upper legs, the belly, et cetera.
You'll end up with a tinfoil figure.

On the right is an example of the wire frame I made for my Shrike figure.

Ok, so far for now about armatures, I hope you're eager to read on. As said earlier, you can see more armatures in the case studies.